Episode #22: 2 Christopher - Chapter 1 - Wounded

Jan,15 2026

<-#21: 1 Christopher - Chapter 21 - Epilogue#23: 2 Christopher - Chapter 2 - War ->

Concerning the wound, the mountain, and the first recognition

1:1

I was wounded late in the war,

not by glory,

but by confusion and noise and iron.

1:2

When I woke, my legs did not answer me,

and the doctors spoke carefully,

as men do when they are unsure.

1:3

I was sent away from the front,

across borders that no longer argued,

to a place of mountains and quiet.

1:4

The hospital stood high,

where the air was thin and clean,

and the sun was treated as medicine.

1:5

They placed us outdoors when weather allowed,

our wounds uncovered,

our bodies exposed to light and air.

1:6

At first, I mistook this for neglect.

1:7

But the nurses spoke of circulation,

of breath and warmth,

and of how skin heals faster

when it is not hidden from the world.

1:8

Some of them dressed lightly,

and some not at all when the sun was strong,

and none of it carried the weight of spectacle.

1:9

It unsettled me,

not because it was improper,

but because it was calm.

1:10

One afternoon, a nurse brought me a book,

saying only,

"You might find this familiar."

1:11

It was a second edition,

printed cheaply,

its pages worn by hands that lingered.

1:12

The title read: The Book of Christopher.

1:13

I read of the field,

of the refusal to shame,

of a man who would not be followed

and would not be moved.

1:14

I read slowly,

as one does when pain interrupts thought,

and yet the words stayed.

1:15

When I returned home,

I did not return whole.

1:16

I went instead to the place named in the book,

expecting memory,

not presence.

1:17

And there he was.

1:18

Christopher was no longer young,

but neither was he frail.

1:19

He worked the field as if it had always known him,

his skin darkened by sun and season,

even where clothing never rested.

1:20

Young men and women worked beside him,

quietly,

their bodies unremarkable in their ease.

1:21

No one spoke.

1:22

I held the book in my hands,

and understood for the first time

that it had never been instruction.

1:23

It had been an invitation to see.

1:24

Christopher did not look up.

1:25

And I did not call out to him.

<-#21: 1 Christopher - Chapter 21 - Epilogue#23: 2 Christopher - Chapter 2 - War ->